But Cambridge based COM DEV is special, at least for this fiscal quarter.

According to the April 13th, 2012 Space News article "COM DEV Foresees ‘Surge’ in Telecom Satellite Orders," a spokesperson for the company said that "while a
decrease in the Canadian Space Agency’s budget will not be good news, Com Dev
does relatively little business with the Canadian government and will not
suffer much."

The comment was made during the April 12th, 2012 conference call with investors focused on the company’s
performance for the three months ending Jan. 31. According to the article, civil government
work represents just 33 percent of the firms total backlog and only a relatively small
amount of that is "with the Canadian government."

According to the article, COM DEV reported "lower revenue and orders, but higher profit, for the
three months ending on Jan. 31 compared with last year and said there are signs
the commercial satellite telecommunications market is regaining momentum."

Back in early 2010, ex-CEO Keating was telling anyone who would listen that the commercial side of the COM DEV ledger was sound, but revenue shortfalls were caused by delays in funding the RADARSAT Constellation program and the lack of long-term CSA funding and planning.

This was discussed in my June 10th, 2010 post "COMDEV Stock Down: Long Term Space Plan Blamed!" and it's interesting to note that, although Keating was eventually fired for those opinions, his successor has addressed many of them and the company is far stronger for it.

MDA, as the prime contractor for the RADARSAT Constellation program, is presently going through many of the same problems that COM DEV addressed in the 2010/11 period. MDA should note these similarities and govern itself accordingly.